Key Question Remains In Bryan Kohberger's Idaho College Murder Case

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Newly unsealed documents from the Moscow Police Department reveal harrowing details about the killings of four University of Idaho college students — as well as chilling insights into the habits of their admitted murderer, Bryan Kohberger.
Kohberger on Wednesday received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the November 2022 stabbings of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, prompting police to release hundreds of documents they had previously kept confidential to protect the integrity of the court case.
The trove of files sheds new light on the investigation, detailing the brutal violence that victims experienced, the tactics police used to identify Kohberger as a suspect and the problematic history the former graduate student had previously had with women. They also bat down some of the theories spun up on social media by true crime fans, while also highlighting unknowns that continue to haunt police and the families of the victims.
Below are some of the revelations in these files — and the one key question we still don't have an answer to.
The stabbings were extremely violent: Goncalves was disfigured. Kernodle was wounded more than 50 times as she fought back.
The documents go into great detail about the brutality of Kohberger's attacks on the Idaho students, revealing that officers found them covered in blood and suffering from a number of fatal lacerations.
Two of the victims were stabbed dozens of times, police said.
Kernodle had more than 50 stab wounds, which were 'mostly defensive,' suggesting that she fought back against her attacker. And Goncalves had over 20 stab wounds as well as blunt force injuries, which disfigured her so severely that her facial structure was no longer recognizable.
Kohberger was right behind a DoorDash driver – who dropped an order off shortly before the murders took place.
One report details how a DoorDash driver narrowly missed Kohberger.
Investigators had pieced together the roommates' movements at various parties and businesses, and by the early hours of Nov. 13, they'd all returned home. A delivery person told police that she dropped an order off at the students' front door around 4 a.m., took a photo and left. While making the delivery, she says she saw a woman in the third-floor bathroom window who kept ducking down every time she looked in that direction.
Police later spotted Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra pulling into the house's front parking lot behind the DoorDash driver's gray Subaru Forester in surveillance camera footage. The driver didn't appear to see him, however, and made no mention of the vehicle in her interview.
The surviving roommates didn't call police for hours because they were drunk, groggy and unsure if the masked man in their home was part of a frat prank.
After hearing what sounded like crying, roommate Dylan Mortensen — who survived the attack — opened her door around 4 a.m. to see a masked man.
Her description of the man's height, build and bushy eyebrows would later help investigators identify Kohberger as the killer, but it's long been unclear why no one called police until noon the next day.
In statements to police, Mortensen noted that she was 'in and out of it' at the time of the sighting, and the other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, similarly said that the two were drunk and groggy, and that they were known for scaring easily. Funke said she believed that the masked man could have been one of Chapin's frat brothers playing a prank and questioned whether Mortensen had imagined what she saw.
After Mortensen saw the man, she called Funke. Funke said she told Mortensen to come down to her room, and that they stayed there and fell asleep. Both also described calling their other housemates around 4:20 a.m. and not receiving a response, though they chalked it up to them likely being asleep.
Funke and Mortensen grew more alarmed the next day after they hadn't heard from their housemates and asked two friends to come check on the house. That's when police were called.
In court on Wednesday, Mortensen made her first public comments on the fear she felt following the attack.
'I was too terrified to close my eyes, terrified that if I blinked, someone might be there,' she said. 'I made escape plans everywhere I went. If something happens, how do I get out? What can I use to defend myself? Who can help?'
Mortensen added that she'd honor her roommates by remembering the memories they once shared.
Investigators put in a massive request to Google for anyone who had searched suspicious terms — and asked T-Mobile for data on devices within 2 miles of the house.
The files highlight the sweeping requests that police made of various tech companies, including Tinder, Snap and Reddit as they tried to access Kohberger and the victims' social media accounts and online activity.
One involved a request to Google, which asked the tech company to provide information on any accounts that had searched suspicious terms authorities had identified.
Those included terms specific to the crime, like the address of the roommates' home, as well as their first and last names.
It also included more general terms that were searched in a narrow window following the murders. Those terms included phrases like 'Moscow murders,' 'University of Idaho stabbing,' 'campus stabbing,' 'DNA on knife,' and 'getting blood out of clothing.'
Police also requested data from T-Mobile regarding devices that were within a two-mile radius of the location they were searching.
Kohberger claimed to police that he knew of the murders because of an alert on his phone.
In his first interview following his arrest — which lasted roughly 45 minutes — Kohberger claimed to police that he knew of the University of Idaho murders due to an alert he received on his phone.
He also spoke about his studies for a Ph.D. in criminal justice and criminology, noting that he had once considered becoming a police officer. Kohberger stressed that knowledge was more important to him than money, and that he was working on ongoing projects with the Pullman, Washington Police Department and the Washington State University Police Department.
When police asked him to discuss the stabbings further, he said he needed to speak with an attorney.
Police found a shovel in Kohberger's car, which had dirt consistent with Moscow, Idaho.
Police compared soil samples from a shovel found in Kohberger's car with those from the Moscow area and found that they were consistent after review by an FBI geologist.
Officers had tested soil samples as part of their efforts to track down the location of a Ka-Bar knife, which they believe was the murder weapon.
Officers said Wednesday that they still hadn't identified the knife's location.
People who interacted with Kohberger before and after the murders described him as smart, selfish and obsessive.
Multiple files featured observations about Kohberger's behavior from people who've interacted with him at school or in jail.
Washington State University staff as well as a fellow teaching assistant both alluded to his problems with women. One text from a WSU staff member stated that he'd 'offended several of our female students' and raised questions about how faculty should deal with these complaints. A fellow teaching assistant similarly said that he believed Kohberger abused his position as a TA to interact with female students inappropriately, and spoke often about wanting a girlfriend.
The TA and Kohberger's neighbor in jail both described him as intelligent, with the former noting that he was selfish and also misrepresented information in the past.
The TA said, too, that he'd seen wounds on Kohberger's face and hands in October and November 2022 including marks that looked like scratches from fingernails. He said that Kohberger said he had been in a car accident when asked about the wounds.
Kohberger's fellow inmate described some of his obsessive habits, stating that he washed his hands dozens of times a day and would take lengthy showers.
One thing we still don't know: Kohberger's motive.
The hundreds of pages of documents notably omitted any clear conclusions about Kohberger's motive, which police say they still don't know.
'There was a reason that this particular house was chosen. What that reason is, we don't know,' police told reporters on Wednesday.
Police did not find any known connection between Kohberger and the victims, and the new files indicate that he wasn't linked to them on social media — despite theories that previously suggested such ties.
Goncalves had also referenced suspicions that she had a stalker, including feeling like someone was following her when she walked her dog a few weeks before the murder and receiving an odd message on Facebook. While police had cellular data that placed Kohberger near the Idaho house multiple times before the attack, they haven't been able to concretely link him to actions targeting specific housemates.
Similarly, there are outstanding questions about why Kohberger spared the surviving roommates, which police alluded to as well. Police said there's speculation that he may have been exhausted from the attacks and felt like he'd stayed in the home for too long.
'I don't know ― only he has that answer,' said James Fry, the Moscow Police Chief at the time of the murders.